Monthly Archive for September, 2012

: September, 2012

Bill and I have been traveling the I-5 corridor for 26 or our 27 years together. The first trip, in honor of my parents 50th Wedding anniversary, was memorable for any number of reasons. Let’s just say that staying in a hotel called The Chalet in N… …

Twice this week, people who were introduced to me and learned I was a writer said that same thing: “How exciting!”Exciting? Really? Ask my husband. Being around a writer who is in the process of writing a book is about as exciting as watching p… …

For years when I toiled in the vineyards of “genre fiction” original paperbacks, I used to say that I wrote “books with no socially redeeming value whatsoever–the kinds of books you can buy in better bus depots everywhere.” Or in airports, for that … …

We’re currently in Medford, Oregon, having a picnic lunch at the RoxyAnn Winery. We spent the morning playing nine holes of very bad golf at the Oak Knoll Golf Course in Ashland. Tonight we’ll dine at the Dragonfly and then see the Merry Wives of Windsor in the Elizabethan Theater.

This is what vacation looks like–a full week of days like this.

But on the way down to Ashland from Seattle, we stopped off for four nights at Cannon Beach, Oregon.

Our daughter has been taking our almost seven year old grandson to Cannon Beach for the last weekend in August since before he could walk. The first lesson she learned in Cannon Beach was that strollers do NOT work in sand. Until last year, they were accompanied on their beach excursions by their rescued golden retrievers, Angel and Kinsie.

Those of you who have followed this blog, know that both Kens and Angel crossed the Rainbow Bridge last year. In April our daughter and her son picked up Snowflake, a golden who was billed as a “great family dog” but who had spent all six years of her life in a wooden shed being the mommy dog in a puppy mill.

Snowflake’s pick up point was in the wilds of southwestern Washington only an hour or so from Cannon Beach. And since the other dogs had enjoyed going there so much, our daughter decided to head there to spend that first night. What’s not to like?

It turns out, the answer to that is there was a LOT not to like!!! Snowflake did NOT like riding in cars. I’m sure those were for vet trips only. When they got to the hotel in Cannon Beach, as our daughter was trying to unload the car, Snowflake bolted in sheer terror! It’s a miracle that she was able to be caught and talked back into the car.

Our daughter knew that a dog who literally freaked out at everything and couldn’t even be walked on a leash was beyond her ability to cope. The very next week she sent the dog off to the Academy for Canine Behavior in Woodinville where, after two weeks of evaluation, even their professional dog trainers weren’t sure Snowflake could be rehabilitated. But after several months which included five weeks of Academy training, Snowflake is a far happier and more confident dog. She can walk on a leash. She is no longer petrified of things like hairspray and TV sets! So last weekend, my daughter, with some trepidation, returned to Cannon Beach with Snowflake in tow.

The dog is still not thrilled about riding in a car, and she managed to escape her back seat harness within the first ten miles of leaving home. But she now looks to our daughter for guidance. She dogs our daughter’s heels, and checks her face to see if whatever is happening is okay or not.

So that first evening, when they went to the beach, Jeanne T. kept Snowflake on her leash. For those of you who aren’t in the know, Cannon Beach is a very dog friendly place, and so is the BEACH at Cannon Beach. Snowflake was able to walk on sidewalks fully stocked with people and dogs of all kinds and not go into total meltdown mode.

The second night on the beach, our daughter took the plunge and let Snowflake off leash. She loved it. She played in the water. She chased the waves. And she stuck to our daughter like glue. Whew!!

But now, unfortunately, let us turn to the SECOND rescued dog in our family–Princess Bella, the abandoned Dachshund we found on a street in Bellevue in October two years ago.

It was when we arrived at the hotel, that Snowflake and Bella had their first official meeting. It was a tentative meeting, but not a problem. Our grandson had given Bella, the fish chaser par excellence, a new dog toy, a stuffed goldfish, to play with. But a stuffed fish is not as much fun as a real fish, so when Bella dropped that and made a run for Snowflake’s new stuffed seal, Snowflake responded in attack mode, as in “THAT IS MY!!! TOY!” However, once we got them focused on their separate toys, all was well.

Later that evening, we decided to go to the beach with Bella. On her new extendable leash. Having no experience in using extendable leashes, I clipped it onto the wrong ring on Bella’s collar. The leash was on the tag ring not the real ring. For those of you who might be tempted to make this mistake, here’s the deal and a word of warning. It’s a BAD idea! Those rings are made like springs for good reason–so new tags can be put on and also so old tags can be taken OFF!

So we went walking on the beach. We went into the water. Snowflake is a lot taller than Bella. Water that Snowflake was happy to lie down in, was much too tall for Bella. And when the first wave washed over her, she was not thrilled. As I was walking her out of the water, disaster struck.

Across the beach, Bella saw something she didn’t like–two recumbent four-wheeled beach-cycles moving along on the hard sand just away from the water. Bella’s eyes narrowed, her nose focused in on those, and she was GONE!!! She bolted to the end of the leash and took off like a shot, with her disconnected tags rolling loose in every direction.

One of the stories I used to tell on the reservation, Mollie Whuppie, has a line in it where the evil giant is chasing Mollie, the story’s plucky heroine. The line goes like this. “He ran; she ran; he ran; she ran; until they came to the bridge of one hair, and she got over and he couldn’t.” There was no hair anywhere in evidence at Cannon Beach, but Bill ran and I ran. To no good effect. Bella caught up with the cycles, barking her head off. When they proved uninteresting in the long run, as it were, she looked around for another suitable target, and then took off after the nearest GREAT DANE! I don’t believe Bella has any self-awareness as far as relative size is concerned. The bigger the better!

By then, our daughter had unleashed HER secret weapon, our grandson, Colt. He took off like a gazelle. Once he closed the distance between us and Bella, he managed to chase her back in our direction. We were finally able to lay hands on her and attach the leash to the proper ring. Once Bella was safely back under control, we all took a very deep breath and headed back to the hotel. Undaunted, Bella spent the whole trip back to our room clearing the beach of all seagulls and crows, most of which were also larger than she is. We now refer to her as the Beach Bitch which, in literal terms is exactly what she is.

The following evening, we went back to the hotel early, leaving Jeanne T., Colt, and Snowflake on the beach. After taking Bella to do her duty, we went into the room where we were surprised to discover that Snowflake was already there, holding tightly to Bella’s toy fish. Bill wrested the fish away and the dog made a larcenous grab for Snowflake’s stuffed seal. That’s when we realized that the golden retriever in question was actually an interloper from the unit next door–an escapee named Bailey whose owners were very relieved when we returned her to them.

On Sunday, Bella headed home with our daughter and grandson while we headed south to Ashland. But maybe next year we’ll be able to bring her along to Ashland. We’ve already signed up for a dog-friendly room on the third floor of the Ashland Springs Hotel.